Bobby Kotick Wants His Salary Reduced to Legal Minimum

Bobby Kotick will be earning significantly less than before from now on. The CEO of Activision Blizzard asked the company's board of directors to cut his salary to $62,500 a year, which is the lowest possible level required by California law for a company of his size. He also declared that he will not receive any bonuses or stock.

In 2020, Kotick's salary was $1.75 million. Earlier this year, he agreed to reduce it to $875,000, but at the same time received shares in the company worth $150 million. The CEO of Activision definitely isn't threatened by poverty, and his latest move is mainly a gesture, which is supposed to calm down the moods at the company, which have recently been terrible due to the sexual harassment scandal.

Under Kotick's tenure, Activision's market value has grown from $10 billion to $70 billion, so the board and shareholders have no desire to replace the CEO.

Kotick declares that his salary will return to its previous level only when Activision's problems are solved. Achieving this goal is to be facilitated by the plan announced by the CEO, which includes changes in five key areas:

1. A zero-tolerance policy on mobbing and sexual harassment will be implemented. The penalty for proven actions of this nature will be immediate layoff.
2. The proportion of women and non-binary staff will be increased by 50%. They currently make up 23% of the publisher's staff. The company will also spend $250 million on measures to increase staff diversity.
3. The arbitration requirement for mobbing and sexual harassment cases, which prevented employers from suing, will be abandoned.
4. The company will increase transparency in compensation and place more emphasis on equal pay for the same positions. Interestingly, research has shown that women in the publisher's U.S. branches earn slightly more than men doing similar work.
5. Activision will regularly inform employees and investors about the progress in the implementation of all these changes.

Recall that numerous reports of irregularities resulted in a lawsuit against the publisher by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. A few days ago, a motion to the court to dismiss the lawsuit was denied.

The publisher decided there was no point in risking court confrontations and quickly reached a settlement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). That's not the end of the matter, however. Indeed, the aforementioned California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has already issued an objection to the settlement, arguing that certain provisions exempt the company from state obligations.

1. Activison Blizzard - official website